Off the ball: 'One out, all out' dope rule highlights grey area

By TERRY MADDAFORD

The fight against methamphetamine, or P, has taken a new twist - one that could have far-reaching consequences on the sporting field.

Touch New Zealand this week disqualified the Counties Manukau men's team months after they had beaten Canterbury in the national final.

The decision raises an interesting aside in the battle against drugs in sport.

Counties Manukau were stripped of the title after one of their players, Thomas Zwart, returned a positive test to pseudoephedrine, methamphetamine and amphetamine.

Under the touch association's rules, one positive test is enough to have the team thrown out.

The Hockey Federation also operates under the "one out, all out" edict. Other high-profile sports such as rugby, league, soccer and basketball don't.

Drugs Agency chief Graeme Steel backs Touch New Zealand's initiative.

"Sports are allowed to make their own rules," he said. "It remains the one grey area in the world anti-doping code.

"There was a big debate during the America's Cup. While they were happy to go along with drug testing and agreed any crew-member returning a positive should be banned, they would not go as far as to say the whole crew should be banned."

In yachting there are probably grounds to argue that way, but what if the player scoring the winning try in the NRL grand final or rugby World Cup returned a positive? Surely the whole team should, like touch, suffer the consequences.

In another example, the US 4x400m gold-medal-winning relay team could be stripped of the medals they won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics following revelations that Jerome Young had failed a drugs test (for steroids) in 1999.

With the mandatory two-year ban, he should have missed the Olympics.

Young was the lead-off runner in the first round and semifinals but did not run the final.

He received his gold medal as a member of the squad. But the question must be asked: would the US have qualified for the final without Young?

Back to Steel.

"In other team sports, equestrian as an example, I could imagine the whole team being disqualified if one member returned a positive," he said.

"Touch have handed out a very good lesson. This is a good indicator from a sport who take the [drugs] issue seriously."

Steel was obviously happier with the manner in which Touch New Zealand handled their case compared with the "soft" penalty handed to cyclist Lee Vertongen in 2001.

Vertongen returned a positive to another banned amphetamine, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (or Ecstasy), at the national championships but after submissions from lawyer Tim Castle, he was handed a retrospective disqualification from a later race at the championships.

An angry Steel reacted by suspending New Zealand Cycling from the agency's testing programme.

While no one condones drug-taking in sport, the new code instigated this week by the World Anti-Doping Agency, among other changes, removed caffeine and pseudoephedrine from the banned list.

There is still the need to "tweak" the rules to make them fair for everyone.

Only the Counties Manukau touch team might not agree.

Herald Feature: The P epidemic